Last night, I finished listening to the audio version of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books by Karen Swallow Prior. I started re-listening this morning, and I want to go back and underline my print copy. On Reading Well looks at 12 works of Western literature in light of 12 virtues. But it's much more much more than books as moral fables or the print equivalent of Christian movies that spell out everything you are supposed to believe by the credits. Reading for virtue goes deeper than that. It requires thinking critically and making connections that may not be obvious. It requires soul-searching on the part of the reader, and just as a work of literature develops characters, reading well should develop our character as we read. This is an excerpt from Tenth of December by George Saunders as an example of the virtue - kindness. This virtue has devolved into mere niceness but it means more. Kindness is "to treat someone like family." (pg. 207)...